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QUICK BITE/Chatham; City Roast, Suburban Roast

Customers who frequent the Newark outpost of the coffee-and-peanut purveyor T. M. Ward may be surprised at what they find once they walk into its sister location in Chatham. Instead of a bustling store jammed with shelf after shelf of bulk candy, nuts and coffee, the Chatham customer sees: Gift baskets? Pottery? Crackers and gourmet salsa?

Don't worry, the coffee is still there, stored in bins inside the rear counter and on a small set of shelves in the back. The bulk candy and nuts are also there, in small barrels that line the floor. But the focus of T. M. Ward in Chatham is more on the upscale side of the food pyramid. Instead of office workers, there are mothers with strollers. And instead of dashing in and out during a coffee break, patrons stay and chat with one of the owners, Axlyn Sommer, and the women who work behind that counter.

Ms. Sommer, whose husband, Bob, has overseen the family coffee business since the 1960's, runs the Chatham store. When it opened in 1995, it sold a lot of the same items that the Newark store did, but over time the Sommers noticed that other items sold better. "You started to deal with a certain company that had some salsas or some fancy steak sauces or whatever," Mr. Sommer said, "and you say, 'O.K., well, we'll try that.' "

The gift-basket business evolved from customer requests to have coffee purchases wrapped. "Food, coffee and tea is almost a no-brainer, because if you're going to someone's house and you've never been there before, it's a good thing to give them," Ms. Sommer said. "If they don't drink it or use it, they'll give it away as a gift. So it works well."

Of course, people also come in just for a cup of coffee, and the various flavors are rotated each week. On Wednesdays, for instance, customers are offered W.O.W. (Women of Ward's) coffee, a decadent combination of chocolate, coconut and caramel that was created by Ms. Sommer and her "gals." "One day we had not too much to do, and we just came up with it," she said. "It's a big seller."